The story of a bag...

Hey y'all!!!

Well, I guess I won't be writting before Thursday, so this post is to say-

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Merry merry MERRY Christmas, BUON NATALE, I love and miss you all very very much.

It really doesn't feel like Christmas here, I don't know, it's a bit sad. I'm not really counting this as a real Christmas, it's just NOT Christmas here :( Sure, there are the few decorations around the city, the lights, a tree in every living room, I haven't heard hardly any Christmas songs being played in the shops though, and it seems as if Christmas this year has been hiding behind the shaddow of this big city the whole month of December. I haven't heard his name as often as I'm used to, his name hasn't been on as many lips as I'd expected. My host family hasn't talked much about Christmas, we have a tree, but it's a poor little fake thing with roughly seven branches and hardly as tall as me. Thursday I think Christmas will show his face for the day, then quietly slip back into the cold grey winter night and sail or fly away across the ocean to home, where Christmas really is for me. I'm here in Milan, here to have this grand experience, but Christmas in Milan is something that will be only an experience, the real Christmas is in my heart and my heart is at home with my family.

I'm not sad though, I just don't consider this a "real" Christmas :)

Alright well, I would talk more about Christmas, except honestly, I haven't done hardly anything for it. I've bought gifts for... Kailee, and my third host family. I gave out some little things to the girls in the other class at school, and I've written a nice Christmas card. I really haven't done anything, and today (after getting my hair CUT) I have to go finish making my host family's present. I would love to do so many things for so many people, both here and at home. It's SO hard though, I feel stranded here, quite helpless, not able to do much for anybody :( I'm not used to that. I'm quite used to having a job and my own car (and a MOM and DAD who love me and never want me to spend my own money, the sweeties) and being able to plan something special for someone and head out in my car to exactly the store I need to go. I like the feeling of being able to do those kind of things by myself. Whereas here, I don't have a job, I have money obviously that I've saved up, but I'm not making any. The city is seemingly infinitely massive, yet I would have no idea where to get simple things, like arts and crafts supplies for example, and it seemed an impossible feat to find a place just to get photos printed. I'm not used to this big city just yet. I like it, sure, but I'm NOT a city girl. I can survive and get on just fine, but it's like the country mouse and the city mouse. The country mouse can live, but it won't be really happy. I hate the buses, and the metro. Trams are ok, people on the trams seem to always be in a better modd than those on the crowed orange buses or deep underground in the yellow, green, or red metro. But how did I go from Christmas to how I hate the public transportation system??

I think one of the biggest things I miss about Christmas here is the music. It's depresing how little Christmas music I've heard this past month, it's as if Italians don't associate music with Christmas as much as we do :( No Christmas CD being played at the house, no cheery music in the stores. I'm listening to a Christmas songs playlist on youtube right now though and it's making me happy :) Haha at the moment I'm listening to "Where are you Christmas" by Faith Hill, I love this song, but thats a bit funny it was on this list.

"Where are you Christmas, why can't I find you?
Why have you gone away?
Where is the laughter, you used to bring me,
Why can't a hear the music play?
My world is changing, and rearranging, does that mean Christmas, changes too?"

Obviously, Christmas is still here, it's just very very different. Obviously. I'm not sad though!

Although yes, I am wondering why I can't hear the music play ;P

Well, I have a great story for all of you. It's quite an amazing story, actually. It happened all yesterday morning, although it began Sunday evening...

Sunday all of us Rotary kids had a lunch and Christmas mass service up in some little town called "Meda." We all met up Sunday morning and took about an hour long train ride up together. Train rides, with a group of friends, are really fun, and it's quite depressing when it's time to get off. You want the train to keep going, start back all over again, because it was just getting fun and getting off the train means everyone has to split up and go their different ways. Anyway, I know I have many more train rides coming up this year, and that makes me happy. We had the service, and the lunch, and it was all nice and grand (I took pictures and will put them on facebook like, as soon as I can, although it will probably be when school starts back up). Of course the food was great, and at the end all us kids got up and sang "Rudolf the Red-nosed Ranedeer" for all the Italian Rotarians and their families (it was quite a lrage gathering). Then, Rotary gave all us kids BIG mugs, with "Buon Natale" and the Rotary Youth Exchange symbol printed on them, AHH!! Now, you all may not know just how big of a deal that was for me. They honestly could not have given me a better gift. As you DO know, I love tea. I have a bit of a thing for it, you may say it's a border-lind obsession. It's been quite a problem for me since I got here though because in Italy they don't have those big American sized cups, they just have these little delicate tea or coffee cups that are good for maybe three sips. And it's really a waste of a perfectly amazing, organic tea bag if you can only make this little ity-bity cup of tea that's finished in about five minutes. Kailee knows how much a love tea, haha I think actually most of the exchange students know, even my host family knows. They call me an "alternative" American, I guess that's as close of a word they can find to a "nature organic tea freak." Anyway when we got the cups I was SO happy, and then I saw Kailee from the distance get this big grin on her face and ask, "Hey, where's Halcy??" That big tea mug was the highlight of the lunch for me I think ;P After of course being with all us crazy Rotary kids

Anyways, when it's all finished we pile back on the train to head back to Milan. I went with Merceds, Molly, Alex and Shannon however, because Sunday night I spent the night in LECCO with Molly!!! Molly and Mercedes are a bit like Kailee and I, and all four of us kind of banded together in the beginning as a foursome. Mercedes is Australian, and Molly is from California. It's a bit like I'm Kailee's American and she's my Australian, and it's the same way for Molly and Mercedes. Anyway, I was pretty excited, even though I felt sick as a dog on the train (no idea why). Lecco is a bit like Como, the wonderfully adorable little mountain Italian town on lake Como, where George Cloney has his multi-million dollar home. Think of Lecco as the sister town of Como. At the train station in Lecco we all split up and go our separte ways. I had to buy a bus ticket and Molly and I took the little Lecco bus towards her house. We rode for about twenty minutes, and I was still feeling pretty sick. We had both woken up that morning (she had spent the previous night at my house) with sore throats, and after lunch I had pretty bad headache and on the train my whole head felt warm and I almost considered just going home and not spending the night with Molly. Yeah, that's how bad I felt. It passed for the most part though as soon as I got off the train and into the fresh wonderful (clean!) mountain air of Lecco, but I still didn't feel great (I probably felt sick for another reason, but this I'll mention on facebook).

We're on the bus, and I had all my stuff with me- a little bag with my blue Rotary blazer we had to wear at the lunch, my Nike bag with all my pj's and toothbrush, and my big ol' heavy black purse with my camera (and everything else) in it. We get off at her house and walk maybe two mintues from the stop. I met her host mom (who is SO sweet!) and then went up to her room to drop off our stuff. We chatted with her host mom at the kitchen table for a bit, while we ate fruit and drank tea. When it was time for bed, I wanted to make a different kind of tea, this detox tea I like to drink beofre I go to bed. Molly started water for me, this is much later, around 10pm or so, and I went up to her room to get my purse where I keep about twenty tea bags at all times. I go up to the room and look for it, but it's not there. I go downstairs, and it's not there. Now, this is my B-I-G black bag, it's not that hard to find. I didn't get to worried about it, but it was odd. I asked Molly is she had put it somewhere, and she said she hadn't seen it. Now, that's weird. I thought maybe, although this would be incredibly unlike me, I had just taken it off at the door and left it on the floor, and that her host mom had put it away in a closet. I held to that and didn't freak out. It was Molly who first asked if I thought I had left it on the bus, but I didn't even consider that option. The first option seemed unlike me, and also quite rude to just leave my bag on the floor by the door, but the second option, the one that I had actually LEFT my BAG on the BUS, seemed impossible. We went to bed, and I started to think about everything that was in my bag. What if I HAD left it on the bus?? I've never done anything like that in my life. Molly asked if I had left it on the train. No, I know I hadn't done that, I had taken my wallet out at the bus station to buy my ticket. Oh goodness, what if my purse was on the bus?? No, it's late, and I'm pretty sure it's here at the house. I didn't get worried, I'm actually shocked I was so calm. Molly asked if I wanted to call the credit card company to cancel my card, but I said no, we'll wait and see in the morning and ask her host mom about it when she's up. I laid back on my pillow, and calmy went through my head everything that was in my bag- credit card, photocopy of passport, driver's liscense, money, photocpoies of documents, cell phone, camera... dang, everything. I went to bed calmy though, I wasn't very worried, I just send up a pray I could find it. Now I look back, it was GOD who kept me so calm.

When we woke up Molly's host mom had already headed out. We ate breakfast and then looked around in the closets for my purse. It wasn't anywhere. Molly suggested that we go to the bus station to see if by some miricle it would be there. That seemed obviously the wisest thing to do, and after we packed a picnic lunch (before we had woken up, her host mom had gone out to buy us food to bring, how cute is that??!) and after I wrote an email to my mom saying "I lost something kind of important, and Molly and I are going out to look for it today, could you please pray we find it?" we headed out. We decided to take this beautiful walk around the lake to the station, and it took roughly an HOUR. It was wonderful, I love long walks. As we got further along however I started to freak out. Oh my gosh, my whole LIFE is in that purse. WHAT are the chances that some kind person, out of the goodness of their heart at 9pm at night, found my bag and turned it in?? If I thought the chances I had actually left my bag (stupid stupid stupid STUPID) on the bus were slim, the chances that it was now ok were basically non-existant. THEN I then realized that oh, if I don't have my bag, I can't go home. There was NO WAY I could ride the train home without well money, first of all, documents, cell phone, I mean there was just no way. Oh goodness, this would be a mess. Something in the back of my head though would NOT let me freak out and go crazy, there was something that was telling me my bag was ok. We kept walking, and about a half hour after her host mom hadn't responded to the text, I started to get scared. Right then however, suddenly, Molly's phone rang, and it was my host mom! She wanted to talk to me, and when I answered she started speaking very quickly in Italian, "What happened? Where are you?? What happened?" "Huh, what, what happened?" I asked. "Your bag!" she said, YAY!!! Whoa, how do you know about my bag??? Well, apparently someone had turned my bag in, and someone had called my school (through the documents that were in there) and the school had called my host mom. My host mom gave me the address to where we needed to go, "Pazza Bione 15" but Molly had no earthly idea where that was. We decided to continue on to the bus staton and ask there. At the station, someone told us we needed to take the bus number 1 and then continue on to some certain stop, the name of which I forgot the minute we were out the door. Dang it. How are two American girls supossed to find some address in the middle of an Italian town when all they knew was the street, number, and which bus to get there?? I asked the driver which stop was "Pazza Bione" and the driver said, "Oh, this guy is getting off there, get off where he does" as he motioned towards a fellow bus driver who happened to be riding the same bus. We got off after maybe fifteen mintues, and the first number I saw was 46. Well, we need 15, how are we supossed to get to that?? I asked the man who had gotten off with us, and also told him in very basica Italian, "I'm an American student, and I lost my purse on the bus last night and someone told me to come to this address to find it" Imediately his face lit up and he said, "Oh, you're the girl who lost her bag! Follow me!" OH MY GOODNESS!!! Someone knew where my bag was! We followed him to the "head station" of the buses, and when we walked in there were two other men, and after I had been introduced as "the girl who lost her bag" they offered to buy us coffee, and told us it would be roughly fifteen minutes until they could get my bag. Apparently they had put it in a safe box, like with a lock and key, and had to wait on the head cheif dude to come with the key and open it. Molly and I waited for maybe twenty minutes, and then we saw someone drive up and heard the men say, "Ah, here he is!" A man got out, came to the door, and when he opened it, THERE WAS MY BAG!!! THEN it hit me that, OH MY GOSH, I could have been COMPLETELY WITHOUT THAT. Like, I'M SO LUCKY TO BE HOLDING THIS IN MY HANDS NOW. All the men were SO nice, haha at this point there were maybe four of them, they all crowed around to watch while they made sure I made sure I had everything in there. Nothing had been touched. I had my camera, credit card, document photocopies, cell phone, charger, Rotary Christmas mug, even the cash, everything! I didn't know what to do, these men had been so nice! I said a million thank-yous, told everyone to have a merry Christmas, and walked out the door with Molly, basically stunned. I almost didn't have my bag!!! I came SO close!!! The only thought that came through my head as I walked out that door was, "Wow, there IS a God, He totally exists, and He's watching out for me" Not that I was at all doubting His existance, but still that's PROOF right there if I ever was doubting, or anyone!!! WOW.

There's my story :P I kind of wrote most of it yesterday, when I had more time, and therefore the beginning is more detailed and drawn-out. Tonight though I don't have too much time to write because it's CHRISTMAS EVE and my host family is having relatives over for dinner in a bit. Well, maybe not in a bit, dinner here is so late, they could be coming over anywhere inbetween a half hour and three hours. So the end of my story is a bit rushed, but I hope I still managed to portray the story well and give it justice :P

So tomorrow is Christmas... wow. I'm hoping I can just get through the day ok, I know we have to drive somewhere fars away tomorrow to see more relatives, and I'm basically preparing myself for a long, hard day of not understanding most of what's going on and guessing at what aunts, uncles, and grandparents are saying to me, all the while keeping a smile on my face and nodding my head in total aggrement to whatever is going on. Deep breath.

I did get a wonderful surprise today though :) :) :) My mommy is so sneaky, she managed to send me a BIG box of Christmas presents as a surprise, which I recieved a week ago (I'm not allowed to open it yet, duh) and today I was given ANOTHER batch of goodies!!! I got to open these though :D My whole family sent me stuff, I got a chram braclet from my Daddy, chocolate, SOCKS, make-up, leggings, cards, all sorts of fun wonderful sweet sweet things. I think I'm most excited about the charm braclet and socks, I gotta say. You would understand if you were in this freezing weather ;)

Oh HEY d'you guys KNOW I got my HAIR CUT yesterday morning?? Yes I did, after I wrote some of this blog in the morning, I headed down about, five minutes down the road to get my hair cut all by my little self. I got big bangs! Yay! And she must've cut off roughly three inches, it was a ton. I really like it, pictures are coming soon ;)

Alright I think I must go, but I'll write more after the hollidays! Maybe even before New Years. I'm spending New Years with some Italian kids, whoot-whoot! I hope it's fun, it should be pretty good. Then Jan 1st I change host families, ach! I'm not sure what exactly my second family is like, I know they live IN the city though, right maybe a twenty walk from Duomo, which is the Center. SoI've heard they're nice though, except they go to church very Sunday morning. Like, Roman Catholic Mass church. Like, so incredibly boring you want to shoot yourself in the foot to get out. Oh help. Maybe I can get out of going every single Sunday, I mean there's no way I'm converting to Catholicism anyway, so what on earth is the point??? I like my sleep Sunday mornings and my English Christian church Sunday evenings, thank you. I think it works out great that way :)

Alright, something smells AMAZING in the kitchen :P I should probably clean up a bit before people get here, I actually have to straighten my room just a tad...

Ok, ALL THE BEST, BLESSINGS ON YOU ALL, I MISS YOU SO MUCH, AND MISS YOU MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAVE A WONDERFUL WONDERFUL WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In Italian; BUON NATALE E FELICE ANNO NUOVO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ciao ciao!!!

Halcyon

(Oh and please excuse the numerous grammatical and spelling errors, I've realized to my dismay that my English is decreasing over here at a much faster rate than my Italian is increasing, it's quite sad)